Is Pricey Oil Necessarily a Bad Thing?

Here's a potent question -- do we want oil down? In the early 1980s, when we had a market led by Schlumberger (SLB - commentary - Cramer's Take), we wanted it higher because we liked the leadership. Obviously we are now in the price range where the consumer is getting hurt big, but there was lots of belief way back then that the consumer was going to get hurt, and we knew for a fact that she did after the late-1970s oil shock.

This position, that higher oil might be good, is pretty antithetical to most views. But there is so much money going toward alternatives and so much money in the sector that would that it is possible the market would actually embrace still-higher prices.

Think about the S&P. It is no longer a financials-dominated index. Energy is more important. The swing on Exxon (XOM - commentary - Cramer's Take) is more important than the swing in Citi (C - commentary - Cramer's Take). We can care a great deal about Bank of America (BAC - commentary - Cramer's Take), but I care more about Chevron (CVX - commentary - Cramer's Take), Conoco (COP - commentary - Cramer's Take), Occidental (OXY - commentary - Cramer's Take), Apache (APA - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Anadarko (APC - commentary - Cramer's Take). Range Resources (RRC - commentary - Cramer's Take) is the biggest winner in the S&P in the last year.

Yes, what I am saying is that we could be at a bizarre moment where petrol energy, energy alternatives -- and here I am speaking everything from clean coal to rails to ag to nat gas -- can lead us higher without, necessarily, a zero-sum game being played out.

Worth considering. I mean, Exxon's every bit a leader as Pfizer (PFE - commentary - Cramer's Take) once was or Google (GOOG - commentary - Cramer's Take), and more substantive in a lot of ways to boot.

Random musings: I am concerned that the Penn National Gaming (PENN - commentary - Cramer's Take) deal won't close, and it has no Macau, which is the only thing people want gaming for anyway. Still not too late to sell.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long ConocoPhillips.

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